Pleurodira, Bothremydidae

A tamerican museum Novitates PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10024 Number 3655, 26 pp., 17 figures, 4 tables June 25, 2009 New Material of North American Side-Necked Turtles (Pleurodira: Bothremydidae) EUGENE S. GAFFNEY,1 G. E. HOOKS, III,2 AND VINCENT P. SCHNEIDER3 ABSTRACT New cranial and postcranial material of the pleurodire family Bothremydidae, subtribe Bothremydina, from the Gulf Coastal Plain of North America, clarifies the distribution of the genera Bothremys and Chedighaii. New skull material from the Campanian Tar Heel Formation of North Carolina shows the presence of both Bothremys and Chedighaii, based on a maxilla and lower jaw. Additionally, a series of otic chambers and basicrania, while providing important information on morphology, are identified as subtribe Bothremydina, genus and species indeterminate, as the basicranium alone is insufficient to distinguish Bothremys and Chedighaii. An associated skull-shell specimen belonging to the pleurodire subtribe Bothremydina from the Campanian Mooreville Chalk of Alabama, FMNH PR 247, identified in Gaffney et al. (2006) as Chedighaii barberi, is reinterpreted as belonging to the genus Bothremys. A maxilla and jugal fragment found among the material belonging to FMNH PR 247 shows that this specimen has a skull with deep pits on its triturating surface, diagnostic of the genus Bothremys, and in contrast to the flat triturating surface of Chedighaii. Because FMNH PR 247 has an associated partial skull and shell, it was the basis for placing the species “Podocnemis” barberi Schmidt, 1940, the type of which is a shell, in Chedighaii Gaffney et al., 2006. A result of this identification is that the species “Podocnemis” barberi Schmidt, 1940, cannot be assigned to a genus, as the shell morphology of Chedighaii Gaffney et al., 2006, and Bothremys Leidy, 1865, cannot be distinguished at present. A review of the shell material in the sub tribe Bothremydina concludes that shells alone are inadequate to reliably distinguish alpha-level taxa in this group at present. It is likely that ALAB PV 2001.2, NCSM 23681, and YPM PU 12951, here referred to Chedighaii sp., belong to a new species of Chedighaii, distinct from Chedighaii hutchisoni, but the material is too incomplete at present to adequately diagnosis it. 1 Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA ([email protected]). 2 Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Longwood University, Farmville, VA, USA (hooksge@ longwood.edu). 3 North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Research and Collections, Raleigh, NC, USA 27601 (vince.schneider@ ncmail.net). Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 2009 ISSN 0003-0082 2 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 3655 Fig. 1. Map of North Carolina Localities. Phoebus Landing on the Cape Fear River and the Bladen County Landfill Annex. [F. Ippolito, del.]. INTRODUCTION Bothremys and has consequences for several other specimens. Gaffney et al. (2006) reviewed and described After the completion and submission of the pleurodires of the tribe Bothremydini of Gaffney et al. (2006) manuscript, the senior North America, consisting of the genera author continued additional acid preparation Bothremys Leidy, 1865, and Chedighaii of the many fragments associated with FMNH Gaffney et al., 2006. The purpose of the PR 247. This resulted in the identification of present paper is to describe material from an isolated skull fragment that altered the North Carolina (fig. 1) and Alabama that was identification of that specimen and had not described in Gaffney et al. (2006), and to ramifications on the identification of other discuss the consequences of new identifica¬ North American bothremydid specimens. A tions of some specimens of Bothremys and summary of these results was appended to Chedighaii. This paper describes new skull Gaffney et al. (2006) as a “Note Added in material from the Cretaceous of North Proof’ (Gaffney et al., 2006: 698). Changes Carolina that significantly adds to our knowl¬ were also made to figure captions and the map edge of North American bothremydids. We (Gaffney et al., 2006: fig. 18). describe the shell of a Chedighai skull-shell The present paper is essentially a correction association, whose skull only has already been and extension of Gaffney et al. (2006) and described (Gaffney et al., 2006), and review requires that the reader be familiar with and the shell morphology of North American have access to that paper. Figures, descrip¬ Bothremydina. The discovery of new skull tions, and references to all of the bothremydid material belonging to a well-known shell- taxa referred to in this paper can be found in partial skull specimen, FMNH PR 247, alters Gaffney et al. (2006). The taxonomy and the identification of it from Chedighai to morphological nomenclature also follow that 2009 GAFFNEY ET AL.: NEW MATERIAL (PLEURODIRA: BOTHREMYDIDAE) 3 reference. The taxa discussed here are all dor dorsal included in the data set of Gaffney et al. ex exoccipital (2006: appendix 3) and are shown in clado- fcti foramen chorda tympani inferius grams in Gaffney et al. (2006: figs. 288-314). QP foramen jugulare posterius The reader should also see this work for fn fossa nasalis fnt foramen nervi trigemini further discussion of pleurodire phylogeny for fossa orbitalis and morphology. For convenience, an abbre¬ fp foramen praepalatinum viated classification from Gaffney et al. (2006) fpcci foramen posterius canalis carotici showing the higher categories and the new interni status of barberi Schmidt, 1940, follows: fpct foramen posterius chorda tympani fpo fenestra postotica fr Summary Classification of North frontal fst foramen stapediotemporale American Bothremydini ica incisura columellae auris Infraorder Pleurodira Cope, 1864 ju jugal la lacrimal Family Bothremydidae Baur, 1891 lar labial ridge lat lateral Subfamily Bothremydinae Baur, 1891 lhv lateral head vein mx maxilla Tribe Bothremydini Gaffney et al., 2006 op opisthotic pa parietal Subtribe Bothremydina Gaffney et al., 2006 pal palatine Bothremys cooki Leidy, 1865 pas processus articularis pf prefrontal Chedighaii hutchisoni Gaffney et al., 2006 pr prootic pt pterygoid Sub tribe Bothremydina indeterminate to genus: qu quadrate sa stapedial artery “Podocnemis” barberi (Schmidt, 1940) se sulcus eustachii so supraoccipital ABBREVIATIONS sot septum orbitotemporale sq squamosal Institutional Abbreviations tb tuberculum basioccipitale ALAB Alabama Museum of Natural ts triturating surface History, University of Alabama, ven ventral Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA XII foramen nervi hypoglossi ANSP Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA BOTHREMYDID CRANIAL MATERIAL FMNH Field Museum of Natural History, FROM THE TAR HEEL FORMATION OF Chicago, Illinois, USA NORTH CAROLINA KUVP University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA In the collections of the North Carolina NCSM North Carolina Museum of Natural State Museum of Natural History are skull Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA elements of bothremydids from the YPM Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven, Campanian Tar Heel Formation of North Connecticut, USA Carolina. These specimens are from two localities in Bladen County (fig. 1), Phoebus Landing on the Cape Fear River at milepost Anatomical Abbreviations 68 (Stephenson, 1912) and the Bladen County am area articularis mandibularis ant anterior Landfill Annex. The vertebrate fossils at these ap antrum postoticum localities are from a lag deposit located at the bo basioccipital top of the Tar Heel Formation. The Tar Heel bs basisphenoid Formation consists of deltaic facies in this part cc canalis cavernosus of North Carolina (Sohl and Owens, 1991). 4 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES NO. 3655 TABLE 1 TABLE 2 Measurements of North Carolina otic chambers Comparison of systematically important Bothremydina specimens from North America B of Gaffney Otic chamber et al. (2006) height Identification Consists of NCSM 18650 150 35 AMNH 2521 Bothremys cooki skull and jaws NCSM 14227 208 58 holotype NCSM 12766 182 51 AMNH 29444 Bothremys cooki otic chamber and NCSM 14103 184 50 basicranium NCSM 14102 - 50 FMNH P26055 “Podocnemis” shell NCSM 14226 - 49 barberi holotype Bothremys cooki holotype 72.2 - FMNH PR 247 Bothremys sp. partial skull and Chedighaii hutchisoni 182.0 - shell holotype ALAB PV 2001.2 Chedighaii sp. partial skull and ALAB PV2001.2 131.0 - shell KUVP 14765 Chedighaii skull hutchisoni Recent pollen analysis (Self-Trail et al., 2004) holotype determined that the vertebrate fauna from the YPM PU 12951 Chedighaii sp endocast of skull Tar Heel Formation at Phoebus Landing is NCSM 23681 Chedighaii sp partial maxilla from the upper part of the early Campanian. and jugal The cranial material includes a series of otic NCSM 14499 Bothremys sp. lower jaw chambers, a partial lower jaw, and a maxilla- jugal fragment. All of these specimens are well preserved in that they are uncrushed and taken as close as possible to the plane of the nearly free of matrix, allowing examination of standard occipital views. These results, also the internal areas of the otic chambers. It is shown in table 1, are consistent with the B only the incomplete nature of the otic cham¬ measurements and at least give a range of bers that limit their taxonomic usefulness, relative size for these specimens. and they are identifiable only as subtribe Except for the variable development of the Bothremydina. The quadrate of one of these, ridge described in NCSM 14227 (see below)

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